Movie Reviews Only

A film that explicitly argues against bringing children into the world under difficult circumstances while relying for its narrative hook and dramatic effect on the heroism and resilience of a child brought into the world under difficult circumstances.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

There are no heroes in The Favourite; there are only sad creatures driven by their various needs. There is, however, a morbid morality to the proceedings, one in which decadence is its own punishment.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

The whole thing plays like a well curated museum exhibit - a retrospective to counter and/or complete the one held shortly after his death in 1984. The material is worth seeing, but doesn't really demand a big screen. &dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

Ryan Coogler, having gone on to bigger and bigger things, steps aside and lets relative newcomer Steven Caple, Jr. do the job of mixing the beats of Rocky III and Rocky IV into a smooth groove for the son of Apollo Creed (Michael B. Jordan).&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

The movie tries hard to make the story of the club's rise and fall emblematic of an era, but in the end, it's about a couple of old friends from the neighborhood who got lucky, got greedy, and got caught.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

While it occasionally pulls away from Colvin to let the nightmarish inhumanity of war provide power and feeling, it all too often relies on juiced-up expressions of humanist heroism.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

Director and co-writer Ali Abbasi's film is a murky, unsettling watch - but however unsettling, it remains gripping and affecting, its viscerality covering for its occasional elisions.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

Dash it all, even the devoted will likely struggle with the reams of expository talk and gobs of unearned feeling and scads of largely pointless beasties, plus some just plain lazy visuals (looking at you, magic cats).&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

Mulligan trembles like a souffle on the verge of collapse, and her unfortunate son can do little but watch and listen and do his best to grow up much too fast. Truth be told, it's his story - but it's Mulligan's movie.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

Melissa McCarthy's bid for dramatic cred is just nasty enough to be enjoyable, thanks hugely to Richard E. Grant's gleeful turn as a dimwitted but high-spirited end-of-the-line party boy who befriends our heroine just as she touches bottom.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

Director and co-writer Lance Daly tells a blunt-force story in blunt-force fashion, draining the color from both landscape and denizens, and spelling out details in dialogue where he thinks it might be helpful. &dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

Ryan Gosling's impassive visage must have the gravitational pull of a black hole, because Chazelle can't seem to keep his camera from being pulled loose from its moorings and drawn in thisclose for more than one or two scenes at a time.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

For every revelation woven into the action, there's a bit of obvious philosophizing to remind you of the real point here. (It sure ain't the gunplay, though the way the six-guns spit sparks is fun to look at.) &dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

The Venom symbiote requires a perfect match to bond with its host; otherwise, the host is doomed. The Venom movie plays like a midnight horror that has invaded a superhero movie, and while there are some laffs to be had, it's far from a perfect match.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

If 2011's The Artist was an homage, this is more of a burlesque, a hot mess of a movie that takes its dramatic cues from the camp excesses of the drag queens among whom our hammered hero finds the lucky Lady.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

High marks for skill and clarity of presentation - it's a real crowd pleaser. But if you want to win Best Documentary in Show, you need to push a little harder - take a risk, and hope you've convinced the audience to pay attention.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

Even if writer-director Rungano Nyoni's film were a lesser achievement - less unsettlingly complicated, less bitterly funny, less bluntly sad - it would still have the witch truck, one of the great cinematic images of this or any other year.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

Ethan Hawke continues scratching his artisty itch by directing and co-writing a biopic of Blaze Foley that feels as raggedy-shambling, jumbled, and sad (but secretly thoughtful and impressive) as the country music oddball himself. &dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

When the time comes for the famous axe and whacks, Lizzie reveals itself as more Greek tragedy than murder mystery - a depiction of feminine ferocity and ingenuity in the face of injustice.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

What's remarkable is that the results are so blockbuster-bland. It might've helped if Black had stuck to the band of misfits angle, pitting the Predator against a group of war-ravaged vets who have to find a way past their damage if they're gonna survive.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

Your enjoyment may depend on how cheekily delightful you find it that they keep up the chatter even during a hillside hump: "Can we please stop talking about your mother?" "I'm killing time."&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

Add another name to the list of talented and charismatic young actresses of color making auspicious debuts of late: Helena Howard, star of director and co-writer Josephine Decker's simultaneously attractive and repellent mindjob.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

Everything here is precise: Abrahamson's direction, the understated performances, the intrusive sounds that stop just shy of jarring. The result is more sad and spooky than suspenseful or scary, an effect that seems entirely, and pleasingly, intentional.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

[The directors] would have done well to shear away the obscuring frills of polite encomiums and pay more attention to the structural details of both the man and what he made.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

Maybe director John Turteltaub thought the barrage of pathos and yuks would distract from the fact that his star is a very big fish that is not very bright. Still: cool shark, bro.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

Notable for its willingness to display coarse language (kids these days), and nasty behavior - it's a dystopia; when mind-control powers are in play, is it really so surprising that they get used for murder, rape, and torture?&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

The insistence may inspire a furrowed brow here, a rolled eye there, and a shaken fist or knowing nod over yonder, but there's enough earnest comment and good music to make the effort worth seeing and chewing over.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

It's not much of a movie - more a parade of rah-rah triumphs obscuring a batch of logical oddities - which makes Washington's committed performance stand out like the heavenly host in the night sky over Bethlehem. &dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT

[Casal and Diggs'] talent and charisma are all but undeniable, and their ambition is impossible not to admire, but their execution is confused - fatally so, from a storytelling standpoint.&dash; San Diego Reader - EDIT